Woes of the Kitamura Clan
by circe-nausicca
Summary: The long, drawn out history of Kitamura Miyoko. Dont read this. It really is boring. I'm warning you.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: ((The characters Miyoko, Sudori, Miraishi, Tshigai, Nanami, and Master Sukitcho All belong to me, as does the cognomen title Shogun Kitamura. The Kitamura legend is also mine all mine, but has sweet roots to Swedish folklore, and I credit them for that so don't sue me. However, I do not claim to own Inuyasha and related characters. No no, not mine at all. I also claim all illustrations bearing my signature of 'Circe' to be mine. I claim these things because I feel like it and my fingers are in typing mode, but feel free to use them, yoink them, and abuse them without my consent.... just don't claim them. This my one true love. Circe))  
  
Prologue  
  
I don't remember a life before I met Miyoko, though I know I must have had one. She would stay up all night and talk to me about the wisdom that captivated her so. She was my mentor all the more than I was hers, though I was paid well to teach her all I knew about arithmetic and writing. When she was very young, she had told me, a very wise person told her a very wonderful quote that she would never, in all her years, forget. He said to her, "The only thing harder than having exactly what you really want, is wanting exactly what you really have." We never have exactly what we want, so our quest is meaningless. We strive each living day to get what we want, so bitterly, so deeply. Yet we do not strive to want what we already have. 'We shall have it someday, what our heart desires', we say to ourselves. But will we? Miyoko tearfully admitted she did not appreciate mother enough ...until she was gone.  
And of course there was the story. I must tell you of the story... It was her favorite bedtime story, the one of the priestess and the Shadow demon that nobody could defeat. She needed to hear it every night, as if to sustain life, as thought she would simply fall to her pillow with not a breath on her lips if she was not told the story of Tshigai and Nanami. I knew the story by heart. We found the story in the temple annals, where we were not aloud. We went there often, and snuck out scrolls with incredible writings on them. She could not yet read when we found the Tshigai scroll, so I read them to her. We were captivated. The first several times I read it by the scroll, but it wasn't long before the scroll was tucked away, back on it's shelf and I remembered the words of my own accord. It was the story of Kitamura Tshigai, The great Kitsune Koruhyu, the most powerful demon to ever draw breath, who killed countless living things and destroyed centuries of the work of human hands. It was Tshigai, whose reign threatened to destroy what all the living things knew. Nobody stood in his way, and those that did were never heard from again, though their bodies were found stiff with rigor-mortus, and impaled with metal spikes. They were found with their eyes and organs removed, their mouths and noses sown shut as though they were to breathe through their open eye sockets, without lungs or a heart. It was a terrifying time, and the end of days was impending. He reached the threshold of power with little effort, yet one stood in his way. She was a joke to Tshigai, this, a young priestess who had only just completed her training, was threatening to end his reign? And yet she stood, lion hearted but cautious, with sword in hand and armor in place. To Tshigai's amazement, they fought for night and day, neither party weaning in strength or dignity. Yet the priestess grew tired, for demon might could not be beaten. The battle was near, but Tshigai eventually gained the upper hand. Yet in Nanami's dying breaths, she reached the inhuman strength of a dying creature, the strength that cannot be matched, and with it she plunged a hand through her adversary's armor, blood and bones, ripped his black heart right from his chest, and smashed it to oblivion. With that she tore out her own heart, placed in the gaping hole in Tshigai's chest, and used her fleeting gifts to heal this; his mortal wound. Nobody knows why she did this, but apparently the desired effect took place. Tshigai's power never diffused, yet he now had a human heart. With this heart he rued his damage to the Earth and repaired all he had destroyed. Every living thing came to trust and love him, as they had loved Nanami before she died. Tshigai had one offspring, who, like him possessed extraordinary powers and heart of human emotion and care. And so passed the gift through the ages, thus creating the great clan of Kitamura. From this sprang a defender of humans and all those in need, the righteous safekeeper of all things marvelous and powerful. From Tshigai sprang the race of the great Shogun Kitamura Te Kitsune Kurohyu, Shadow Fox Warlord Kitamura, or merely Shogun Kitamura; The great demon with the heart of a human. Perhaps a little violent for a bedtime story? Of course, Nightmares were amicable by Miyoko's book. She looked forward to them and loved to tell me about them. Yet Miyoko had her reasons for loving this story so. Let us just say that she knew quite well of the troubles of the Shogun Kitamura. We both agreed that this was the greatest story ever put on scroll, yet when she told me of her own adventure she dwarfed even Tshigai's fate. Her great tale of adventure that I so wished I had known as well. 


	2. chapter 1

Chapter 1  
  
The winter had finally ended, and the snow was gone, replaced with tiny florets of grass and young leaves. The night was warm and sweet with the early spring rain. The flowers, which had recently reopened their majestic faces, had turned down for the night while the world slept. Cicadas chirped and crickets sang a soft, humming harmony to replace the shrill calliope of the morning birds. The rains had cleared, as had the sky, and a waxing moon hung carelessly in place, tacked up by the cornucopia of stars. And under that moon lay a village, picture perfect with its little huts and softly trodden dirt roads snaking between the abodes. Along its perimeter lay woods, rich mosses, fields and soft grasses and at its center lay a large temple. It was the Kitamura temple, rising above the sleepy huts in slumbering splendor. It was large, like a Magistrate's palace, complete with living quarters for maidservants and royals alike. For this, unlike most temples, was the residence of its own relic.  
Within this village, it's citizens slept. They were fully content with the fact that there was no safe place in this day and age than the village of the Kitamura temple. Yet in this sleepy village, one remained fully alert. She was a young girl, looking no older than the human age of twelve, with colossal golden eyes and a black plait trailing down her back. But this girl was far from human, and this was evident by the black tearlets down her cheeks and the crescent moon tattooed upon her forehead. It was obvious what she was; yet the villagers did not fear her. They fell at her feet in reverence as she passed, and not out of fear, but gratitude. For this was the late Kitamura, and she would grow to be their guardian. She sat awake that night, wrapped in her summer bedclothes of silk. The night was warm, and she did not need a blanket. She sat by her window looking out into the flawless night.  
She was disturbed. Disturbed by the prophecy of late, the Kitamura's test, and this time, sed Kitamura would have to choose between passing this test and keeping their life. The girl shuddered suddenly at the thought. I don't understand. Why must the test be difficult this time? Her trainer's voice echoed in her mind, "You are not ready to receive the title of 'Shogun Kitamura', but if you continue to train you will be ready when the time comes." She still had time. The time was not now.  
"Kitamura, Kitamura!" The pounding of a distressed fist on the temple door jarred her from her thoughts, and she stood up so quickly it dizzied her.  
"Kitamura! Come quick! Oh, please help!"  
The banging became more pronounced, yet the late Kitamura did not need to answer it. The shed her bedclothes, drew on a claret kimono, and seared through the halls to the armory.  
  
The young girl was not the only one acting. Kitamura Sudori had also raced to the armory as soon as the call was raised; yet she had gotten there first. She was a middle-aged, yet strikingly beautiful woman with severe eyes and black hair; she too sported the crescent tattoo and tearlets, yet her tearlets were narrower and doubled. A frenzied man with small, watery eyes and a round, bald head burst in behind her.  
"Shogun Kitamura" He knelt until his nose was flattened on the flagged floor beneath him, "It is as we feared."  
"Tonight?" Sudori said, with a sharp hint of anxiety. I surge of panic ran through her, but she did not shudder. "I thought we had more time."  
The man looked up at her, pale with fear in the dim candlelight.  
Sudori smiled gently "No matter, Master Sukicho, You need not worry" The man bowed once more and left the room as Sudori reached for her heaviest armor. This is the night, she thought, this is my test. She heard a small squeaking noise from the door and turned. Her daughter stood, gasping for breath and eyeing Sudori's heavy armor. "It's serious then," The young one asked, eyeing her mothers' armor.  
Though she was of the cognomen 'Kitamura' this was not the Kitamura that had been called for. The Kitamura they had been calling for was this girl's-  
"Mother!" The girl called when Sudori did not reply, "Please don't tell me it's tonight! I thought we had more time."  
Sudori's severe eyes unexpectedly broke with tears. She wiped them away immediately and continued to suit up.  
"Miyoko, I'm sorry." Sudori replied and Miyoko, the younger Kitamura, also broke into angry tears as her mother reached for Tsukatani, the great spirit-sword. Tsukatani was not to be taken lightly. Sudori never used it unless absolutely necessary.  
The armory was silent for a while the only sounds were of Miyoko's sniffling and Sudori's heavy armor rustling softly.  
  
The test was for Sudori. Every Shogun Kitamura had a test, and if they did not pass it they were permanently condemned. If they passed it, they were canonized and praised throughout history. This was Sudori's time, the test Miyoko had worried about for months now. She was not ready to lose her mother. She knew she should not fear, Sudori was the strongest Shogun Kitamura every known to deity, stronger than Kitamura Tshigai himself. Yet anger and terror gripped her as she gazed into the armory. This was not a good night after all. The village outside was a torrent of screams. They too had heard of the oncoming fate of their precious good Kitamura. Sudori had never let them down, never once failed to protect them. She had, of her own accord, cut of her own left leg in order to free herself from a trap and destroy a demon that kidnapped a young child from the village. The village carpenter made her a new leg of wood, yet though the leg was good as new, the villagers would never forget her deed. She had cast away the man she loved to mother a child of a demon whom she hated because she knew that she must keep the Kitamura blood clean. She was the quintessence of a good Shogun Kitamura, and the villagers would not sleep again without her reign. They wept abaft the temple and fell to their knees, praying for Sudori's life. But they were not the only one's who would not see her go lightly.  
  
Within the armory, the young Miyoko raced to the wall abreast her mother's and reached for her own heavy armor. "Oh no you don't, Kid. You're staying here." Sudori said sharply from across the room. Miyoko had been on many missions with her mother so far. She knew by her mother's actions which armor to don. She had not been told to remain at the temple for years now, and she did not intend to stay. "I wont let you die, Mommy!" Miyoko shot back. "I'm going to help you or die trying!" With that Miyoko donned her heaviest armor and reached for her sword. The armor was quite heavy, and Miyoko had never worn it before. She staggered over to her mother and fell in a heap at her feet. Sudori smiled "Miyoko, You have to stay here." She reached down and pulled, heavily clad daughter to her feet, and hugged her tightly. Miyoko looked furious with herself for toppling so easily. Why is this stupid crap so heavy? She thought crossly. "Miyoko," Sudori said softly, "It is my time. You have been blossoming into an able Shogun, and your ambling for your title." Sudori saw the unconvinced look on her daughter's face. She sighed and said, "What are you so worried about anyway? I'm coming back you know." Miyoko's determined features slackened. She had not thought of this. She had been so worried of the possibilities of her mother's death that she had not remembered her mother's status. She frowned slightly. "I don't believe you. You're trying to throw me off!" Miyoko growled Sudori scoffed "You doubt me? Tosh, child. Have I ever come back with so much as a flesh wound to worry about?" Sudori replied "No, but-" "So is there reason to fret?" "But the rumors-" "Are just that- rumors." "Mommie, I need to-" "No you don't. You need to stay here with Miraishi" Miyoko looked unconvinced. Sudori tousled her oldest daughter's hair and grinned. "I will be back, so I would suggest you do something about that plait." Sudori said ominously Miyoko blushed. Though Miyoko's mother had been quite the ornatrix, Miyoko herself had never been good at braiding hair. Her trainer, Master Sukicho, was the type who considered scruffiness a sin. Miyoko gazed up at her mother, but Sudori was preoccupied with the sky outside the village. I've wasted too much time. Sudori thought in a panic. "I have to go. Chin up, dearie. And I expect that plait to be neat when I get back." Sudori said. She was only about ten yards away from the temple before doubling back and calling for Miyoko "Miyoko?" "Feh?" "Promise me you wont follow me. For any reason" "Ah HA!" Miyoko yelped, "So you DO intend to be injured!" Sudori scoffed again "Honestly child, you amaze me." Sudori shook her head, "I don't want you following me in case YOU getting hurt!" Miyoko opened her mouth to argue, but Sudori cut her off, "Just swear it! Please 'Yoko!" Miyoko flinched as though the words would hurt. "Okay, okay, fine. I swear. I wont follow you." "Thanks dear. See you later." With that, Sudori took to the air and was soon out of sight. 


End file.
